Hello, we
are Nicola and Alan from the UK. We have spent the last week of our holiday in
the Seychelles volunteering with the MCSS on the Marine Turtle monitoring
project, patrolling nesting beaches.
 |
| A fresh track! |
We have been
walking along nesting beaches at the high tide line, first thing in the
morning, looking for distinctive turtle tracks. These can alert us to the fact
that a female turtle has hauled herself out of the sea to crawl up the beach
looking for somewhere suitable to lay her eggs. All turtles must return to land
to lay their eggs, usually on the exact beach where they were born.
 |
| Looking for tracks |
In the
Seychelles, we are mostly looking for Hawksbill Turtles, the smallest of the 8
species of marine turtle found worldwide. Unfortunately, the Hawksbill has
suffered from human persecution, not only for meat and eggs, loss of nesting
beaches due to development and pollution, fishing practices, but as their
shells are widely regarded as the most beautiful and are collected for
decoration.
Hawksbills
are unique in the Seychelles for nesting in the day; other turtles only nest at
night, but as long as it is high tide (reducing distance to crawl) they will
emerge to nest. There are occasional Green Turtle nests (of which we only saw
one set of tracks during our week with MCSS).
If tracks
are found we follow them and look for nesting signs…digging, false nest, and
successful nest. Hopefully, we will find an adult turtle. On one such survey we
were lucky enough to do this! A local resort alerted us to a huge Hawksbill
Turtle on the beach outside the resort and we found her just as she was
starting to dig a nest. We spent the next hour and a half watching her dig an
egg chamber, lay eggs, camouflage the nest, and then crawl back down the beach
to return to her marine world. It was a fantastic experience, one which we will
never forget!
 |
| Can you spot the turtle? |
This nest
was laid in close proximity to a development and was fairly close to the high
tide line (naturally the Turtle would have crawled higher up the beach but was
prevented due to development). As a result, we had to collect the eggs, and
place them further up the beach in a nest which we had dug. We counted approx.
210 eggs, which is a huge amount for a Hawksbill. The new nest was dug within
the resort beach and fenced off. Data was collected, including turtle size,
nest location, and any hazards on the beach. In addition to this photos are
taken of the heads of the turtles which is entered into a facial recognition
program so that individuals can be monitored (e.g. which/when beaches are being
used) and avoids stressful methods such as tagging. Nests are monitored until
the hatchlings are ready to head to the sea, usually in around 2 months time
emerging at night.
 |
| ....and she's off!.....back to sea! |
We have
really enjoyed our week volunteering with MCSS and would recommend it to anyone
interested in learning more about the incredible marine wildlife of the
Seychelles. Vanessa, Marine Turtle Monitoring Officer, was very enthusiastic, knowledgeable
and welcoming and it was a really valuable experience, one which we would not
have been privileged to if we did not get involved. We are very sad to leave
the Seychelles and hope to come back again one day, maybe we will see some of
the hatchlings we witnessed being laid returning to a nesting beach!
